School board discusses Superintendent’s leadership abilities and leak of his self-evaluation

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During a discussion at today’s workshop about the process for selecting a permanent superintendent, board members discussed the leak of Superintendent Shane Andrew’s self-evaluation and set a target date of November 30 for the hiring of a new superintendent.

The purpose of the workshop was to learn about how the selection process would unfold with the board’s selected consultant, the Florida School Boards Association. As the timeline discussion concluded, Chair Tina Certain said she favored moving forward with finding a new superintendent: “Over the past year, I don’t think that leadership has been there to direct the staff.” She said that although staff members should be expected to do their jobs, “what I’ve experienced is, folks will be hesitant to move if they’re not getting direction.”

Certain said former Superintendant Owen Roberts (who was hired in 2014 and resigned in 2016 after criticisms about improper citations in a book he wrote) had come in with a plan and had “set clear expectations.” She said Roberts didn’t get his plans from the board: “He said it himself as to where he wanted to see the district go.” Certain continued, “He was a true leader in the sense of being able to know what it takes to drive organizational change. I don’t think we have that.” Certain said that they’ve “lost a year of time and not had any measurable or any true progress, in my view, towards goals… If we just keep waiting around, the children aren’t going to benefit… So we can either sit around and stay the course with the person we have, to say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna let him fix it.’ And then we bring someone else new in. Man, people are gonna run us out of Alachua County.”

Member Diyonne McGraw disagreed, saying any new superintendent or interim superintendent will “inherit the same district staff that the current superintendent has” and that the “data has not moved” in ten years. She agreed that “there are children who are failing, there are children who have failed. But to say that one person has caused all of this, I’m not gonna sit here and agree with that.” She said that having three superintendents in 2.5 years shows that the district is “unstable.”

McGraw continued, “All I’m saying is, don’t sit here and try to destroy a person and talk about what they failed to do over and over again, when they inherited.” She said she was getting a lot of calls “about nothing because people get stuff misconstrued… and it gets all over, and it gets in the paper. And it’s the wrong message that we continue to send. I’m not saying we don’t move forward, but I’m saying let’s not sit here and try to destroy someone.”

Certain responded that she wasn’t blaming anybody, “But the point of the matter is, the superintendent gets the vision from the board members, right? And the superintendent has to direct the staff, right? And then he has to hold them accountable if they don’t do it, but if he doesn’t direct them, and… they don’t push down a vision or bring a team together and build a team–because the next person that comes in is going to have staff, they can’t clean house… meaning get rid of everybody. But that’s up to the superintendent.”

McGraw agreed that it’s time for a change, but “every time it’s time for a change, we start pointing fingers and trying to destroy people.” Certain said she thought McGraw was “misconstruing what–I’m not trying to destroy anybody.”

McGraw responded, “I’m not saying maybe specifically you–when we, what I’m saying is when we are sharing information… sharing stuff that you have not been asked to share yet, that may not be public, that’s what I’m saying.”

Apparently referring to Facebook posts that described Andrew’s self-evaluation, Certain said someone had called her about information that wasn’t public, but only school board members and three or four staff members had access to the information: “Someone had to disclose it.” She said the board needed to be careful about getting distracted by disagreements because that takes the focus off the students.

Member Kay Abbitt says the district is “a mess… I’m not talking about the disagreement. I’m talking about the fact that something like the self-assessment got out somehow… and only seven people knew about it. Well, I sure didn’t send it out… I can’t even imagine the other board members doing that… Even though we disagree, I think we all have very high ethical standards… I can’t imagine either of [two staff members] ever doing that. And so where did it come from?”

Member Sarah Rockwell said, “I know. I have that question, too.”

Abbitt said that when that happens, “social media goes crazy” and people start talking about the board and the superintendent instead of “all those little kids at Rawlings that have a substitute teacher… we’re focusing on this stupid stuff [instead].”

Member Leanetta McNealy requested a board retreat for “unification… I want this board, before I say goodbye, to be unified.” She wanted more meetings in general to “have this opportunity to square up and explain” and give board members the opportunity to understand each others’ points of view.

During the previous discussion, some board members had wanted a new superintendent to start on January 1, 2024, to get past the focus on rezoning during the fall, and some wanted the new superintendent to start on October 30. The consultant recommended splitting the difference and aiming for a new superintendent by November 30.

McNealy said she favored October because “tomorrow night, we will be doing the evaluation of the superintendent and the contract. Normally, when all of that occurs, someone is dismissed as superintendent.” She said she didn’t know how the vote would go, but if Andrew is dismissed, they would need another interim superintendent, “and the quicker we can get someone in here who will be in charge of this district, is why I want the October date. The sooner the better.”

Certain decided that November 30 should be the target date to complete the search for a new superintendent.